Forest Fires

The Sawtooth Fire is most active to the west.

Sawtooth Fire has reached 5,000 acres.

The 4,869 acre Sawtooth Fire west of Hamilton is now 35 percent contained, and much of that containment is on the important eastern edge of the blaze - which is nearest private property.   The fire has been spreading farther west into the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness. Fir...

The fire spread to the west Sunday.

The fire grew rapidly in high winds.

Low relative humidity and a strong breeze pushed a wildland fire from a quarter acre to 75 acres in a matter of hours on Sunday evening. Missoula’s fire danger is “Extreme” and this rapid fire growth is a result of these conditions.

With the end of summer, many of the more experienced wildland firefighters have headed back home or back to school.

Lolo National Forest spokesman Boyd Hartwig says ‘Fire Season has come to Western Montana’, and he has two rapidly growing fires to prove it. The Butler Fire has doubled in size to over 80 acres in the last 24 hours as it burns a few miles from Frenchtown Pond.

Recent lightning storms that brought an estimated 3500 lightning strikes in the Bitterroot National Forest area have resulted in at least nine new wildfires, as of Sunday afternoon. Forest spokesman Tod McKay says his office has received hundreds of calls from concerned people about seeing smoke in the forest, most of which are referring to the nine fires than have been confirmed.

The Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest and other agencies fought one of the first Montana forest fires of the year this weekend. The 105-acre Bear Trap Fire at the confluence of the Madison River and Bear Trap Creek was started by an escaped campfire Saturday ...